Attention shoppers—a shelter’s wish list

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: May 4, 2008

What to get a shelter for battered women and children as a housewarming gift is not the kind of question you mull every morning, but there are some local folks who hope you’ll consider it soon.
Charlottesville’s own Shelter for Help in Emergency, the shelter that has grown from a small home to a large house to a new, $3 million facility, is gathering its regulatory ducks into formation so that clients can move in this month. As a way to celebrate, its leaders have registered at area department stores for a list of wanted goodies and needed necessities.
“The needs we have range from everything from throw rugs to comforters to spoons and place-settings,” said Cartie Lominack, the shelter’s executive director. “We’re looking for new things because this is a new building and we want to make sure the people who come here feel welcome and that the furnishings help them with their self-worth.”
Registered for emergency
The Mr. Coffee 12-cup, programmable coffee maker from Bed, Bath and Beyond is definitely a necessity. So is that Woolrich-brand red, alternative down, full-size comforter from Target and so are the always-classic 200 thread count sheets from JC Penney.
One of the reasons that the shelter hopes for help from Central Virginia shoppers is that the nonprofit is spending all the money it’s raised on the new facility. There aren’t many millionaires out there willing to cough up the bucks for a shelter because, let’s face it, the John Paul Jones Shelter for Battered Families just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
No matter, the 14,000-square-foot, four-suite, 10-bedroom, four-bath building with office space and common rooms is built with sustainability and the environment in mind.
“It will really be an improvement over the 5,000-square-foot home we’ve been in for 18 years,” she said. “The building was a single-family home that we adapted to work for us and we had 20 women and children in five bedrooms with three full baths. This building has been designed to work for us from the start.”
Home first, then the rest
Currently about $600,000 short of paying off the facility, the shelter has worked hard to raise the dough, receiving a variety of matching grants to get the place built. That’s why officials decided the hard-earned cash would be better spent on the building rather than on cool furnishings and fancy chairs.
That’s also why officials didn’t register for big-ticket items like the mega-spectrum, full-wall, plasmatic, high fidelity, digitally enhanced video display sequencer. They just want basic home furnishings, such as the hard-anodized, 10-piece cookware set, the commercial, chromed, five-tier shelving unit and the Sunbeam-brand, two-slice toaster.
“We have things on there that can match anyone’s budget, from pots and pans to linens and comforters,” Ms. Lominack said. “We just hope people will help.”